Vicente del Bosque goes a long way. On the podcast Offsiders He discussed many topics, among which were his relationship with the parents of the children from the Madrid youth academy, his treatment with Raúl Bravo or Carlos Aranda… but there is more, because the world champion coach with Spain in 2010 and winner in Euro 2012 remembered that time and many more situations.
One of the footballers I have the best memory of is Fernando Redondo. The Argentine was European champion alongside Del Bosque and one of the most charismatic footballers of that team: “Fernando Redondo was a complete player, he had the gift of command, leadership, perhaps it was not one with a lot of touch, control and passing, that is also trained. We had this guy who dribbled in the midfield, and he was capable of doing it. And Makelele. They were players who had counted the passes they gave to Figo and Roberto Carlos, that was the ‘problem’,” he explained.
But returning to Redondo, there was a player who Del Bosque ‘tried to stop’, but he couldn’t. He had Redondo as an idol and of course, he imitated his haircut: “Guti He was very Fernando Redondo, sometimes I caught him in the field above, in the sports city, and I told him ‘cut your hair a little’but He very rightly told me ‘when you cut your mustache I’ll cut my hair’ and from then on I said ‘there’s nothing more to talk about’“.
Del Bosque did not succeed and Guti became a reference for Real Madrid fans due to his game and his blonde hair. In that Madrid there was no shortage of people wanting to be champion: “In Madrid there were young people. You had to dig hard to not find people with enthusiasm. But normally they were people with desire.”
Spanish team and the Xabi – Busquets debate
Champions in the 2010 World Cup, it was a state debate whether Xabi had to play or Busquets had to play as a pivot. And Del Bosque tells why the two played and the pressures they suffered: “From Madrid they told us that Xabi Alonso had to play and from Catalonia that Busquets had to play. The press and people influenced by the press. That we had to play with a midfielder. Also within the squad, eh. But we thought that our core were the two midfielders and that alternation at the beginning of the game and at the end, they did it perfectly. They were two extraordinary team players, they played short and long, for us they were essential, one from Madrid and the other from Barcelona. In this case the opinion was to play with both of them, that meant we couldn’t play with Fàbregas or Silva,” he recalled.
No favoritism
That Spanish team was one of the favorites, but within the locker room they were clear that they had to be cautious: “It hurt me to say that we were going to be champions. In football we cannot be so vain, presumptuous and foolish to believe that we are going to be champions. But we are going to be champions, we are going to try, but always with normality. We thought about it, but without being cloying, we had to fight against it because it’s not good, because it sinks in and when they send you home, all hell breaks loose. For that we had a team ready in that sense.”
His departure after Euro 2016
Del Bosque and his coaching staff left the national team after the failure at Euro 2016 and the coach remembered that moment: “”Before starting the Euro Cup in France we knew that we were going to leave, I told the president and he tried when we finished in France to come to my house and talk. That surely we should have done it before? Well possibly. Many told me that I should have left after the World Cup and we were European champions. We left at the moment we thought we didn’t have to be. In 2016 he was already determined to stop training. We had the possibility of going to train somewhere but we didn’t want to. “I had already experienced football with so much passion but on the field and in a tracksuit, the last time.”
